This week,Hideo Kojima and A24 revealed that they’ve teamed up to bring Death Stranding to the big screen.
“It’s official,” the indie film distributortweeted. “We’ve partnered with Kojima Productions on the live-action feature film adaptation of Hideo Kojima’s acclaimed video game, DEATH STRANDING.”
What is a little surprising is that this is apparently what A24 had in mindwhen The Wrap reported that the company planned to start making more IP and franchise movies. That news broke not long after the news that A24 was seeking to acquire the rights to theHalloweenfranchise, so it didn’t seem like much of a stretch to expect A24 to take a traditional route to becoming a bigger, more profit-focused distributor. It had already started building its own horror franchise with the back-to-back releases of Ti West’s X and Pearl, and announced a Talk to Me sequel shortly after the horror flick found mainstream success. It wasn’t hard to imagine A24 combing through its back catalog, and seeking out filmmakers to make sequels to previous hits like Ex Machina, The Witch, It Comes At Night, Hereditary, and Everything Everywhere All At Once.
So, the path it seems to be charting instead is a little more interesting. Earlier this week, the company released the first trailer for Civil War, Alex Garland’s vision of a near-future America where the country has once again split into warring factions. There isn’t official budget information available for it yet — though I’ve seen the number$75 million floated— but it looks significantly bigger than anything A24 has made until now. And, aside from EEAAO, it’s much more action-packed than the company’s usual fare.
While those factors might make it seem like a commercial play, it’s also a film written and directed by an auteur filmmaker about societal collapse that’s set to come out during an election year. Tonally, it’s a long way from most blockbusters currently being produced, and represents the work of an artist with a clear sensibility.
That description also applies to Kojima’s video games. They’re blockbusters that can be categorized in familiar genres. The MGS games are stealth-action. Death Stranding is open-world. But, like A24 movies, they show the fingerprints of their creator. No one writes characters like Kojima, and few game developers are as playful with triple-A form as Kojima has consistently proven himself to be. If you were an arthouse cinema fan attempting to get into video games before the age of itch.io indies, Kojima would have been the best place to start.
Recent Films From A24
From left to right: Beau is Afraid, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Talk To Me, and Pearl.
That doesn’t mean that Kojima will make a good film. Making a game that has an interesting interplay between systems and storytelling is a different animal than making a movie that needs to keep viewers engaged for two hours. Any medium is active if it actively involves the minds of its participants, but video games are active in a different way. If you’re not interested in the story, you may still be interested in figuring out how to get a wolf to pee on the cardboard box you’re hiding in. In less Kojima-specific terms, you have mechanics to fall back on if story fails.
Plus, we don’t know what exactly Kojima’s role is in the film. A24’s wording leaves in question exactly how involved Kojima will be, and Kojima’s statement about the collaboration doesn’t make it any clearer. Will he direct? Will he write? Will he do both, as Neil Druckmann did for episodes ofThe Last of Us? Will he have a more supervisory role, maybe as an executive producer? We don’t know yet.
What we do know is that video game adaptations are increasingly big business. The Last of Us was a huge hit for HBO,The Super Mario Bros. Moviewas the second biggest movie of the year, andFive Nights at Freddy’swas also a huge hit. If video game movies are the next big trend following the crash of the superhero boom, A24 partnering with one of video games' true auteurs seems like a smart way to continue making interesting movies that are also increasingly commercial. I still worry that A24 could move too far away from its roots and lose what makes it an interesting company. But if it has to get into IP, this is the best way to do it.
